Body clocks that prepare for meals: key ideas and ways to study them

Rats and mice can anticipate daily mealtimes through food-entrainable oscillators distinct from light-entrainable systems.

• Behavioral anticipation of mealtimes is regulated by specific internal clocks that differ from those influenced by light.
• Food-anticipatory rhythms show resilience against various neural and genetic disruptions.
• Certain neural ablation sites or gene mutations may lead to reduced or absent anticipatory rhythms, though findings are inconsistent.
• The attenuation of these rhythms may arise from mechanisms either before or after the main clock system.
• Compensatory timing mechanisms could explain the lack of observed effects in some cases.

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